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many species being vines climbing high on the trees in tropi- 

 cal forests; numerous species have underground stems and 

 branches which contain much starch and are cultivated 

 in the tropics for food, under the name of yautias and taros. 

 Plants of the same family, too large for exhibition in this 

 house, may be found in house No. 4. Others will be 

 found at range 2, houses 16, 18, and 20. 



House No. II. Here are brought together many kinds of 

 tropical plants belonging to the banana, ginger and canna 

 families. The collection of bananas and their relatives 

 occupies the greater part of the space and one or more of 

 the specimens is usually in fruit; the collection contains 

 both the edible, commercial bananas and the plantains, 

 and also several species whose fruit is not edible, but in 

 which the interest lies in their decorative leaves and flowers- 

 The stems and leaves of all these plants contain some fiber, 

 which is produced in enormous quantities in the Philippine 

 Islands from Musa textilis, and is the well-known Manila 

 hemp. The supply of fruit for the United States comes 

 mostly from Central America and the West Indies, and 

 some from northern South America. Bananas will grow 

 in southern Florida, but the rocky soil of that region is not 

 well adapted to their cultivation. The traveler's tree, 

 from Madagascar, is shown in several fine specimens, and 

 gets its English name from the fact that the axis of each 

 long leaf-stalk contains a great deal of water which can be 

 tapped and drunk. The bird-of-paradise plants, which 

 take their name from their gaudy flowers, will be found in 

 this group; they are natives of southern Africa and belong 

 to the genus Strelitzia. Another genus of the banana 

 family, Bihai, is also represented by several species, called 

 wild plantains, natives mainly of tropical America. 



Here also may be found several species of the genus Costus 

 and of other genera of the ginger family, including the 

 ginger plant (Zingiber Zingiber). 



House No. 12 contains specimens illustrating several fami- 

 lies of monocotyledonous plants of tropical regions. The 



